Too Many Cooks on Offense for Michigan?

Last year Notre Dame went through a reboot of its staff that included letting go coaches that Brian Kelly had a long working relationship with. There can’t be an argument that it largely paid off with the Irish getting back to 10 wins from 4 the previous season.

Jim Harbaugh and Michigan are experiencing a similar reboot of sorts with major staff changes on offense.  It's been a pretty chaotic offseason in Ann Arbor with all of the turnover.

They brought in former Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos for a very short time before he bolted for Alabama. Then they went ahead and added former Florida coach Jim McElwain to their staff to work with the wide receivers.

While all of that was happening, Greg Frey, who coached the tight ends and offensive tackles, left to work with Willie Taggart at Florida State. Two other coaches were added and another well known assistant, former Notre Dame offensive line coach Ed Warriner, was brought in as an offensive analyst.

If it sounds confusing, it’s because it is. With offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Tim Drevno and former Stanford and Indianapolis Colts OC Pep Hamilton as well, there was definitely a feeling of too many cooks on offense for the Wolverines.

Then earlier today it was announced that Drevno, who had coached with Harbaugh at Stanford and with the 49ers before Michigan, was stepping down and will be replaced by Warriner as the O-line coach.

While this reinforces that Harbaugh is the perfect person to play the Hawks coach in the remake of The Mighty Ducks, it’s also an example of him throwing darts at the wall to see what will stick on offense.

Frey was added in 2016 to the staff to help split the O-line with Drevno. Then last year Hamilton joined the staff to try and rekindle some potential Stanford magic. None of that worked as their offense has gone from 38th in Harbaugh’s first season all the way to 85th last year.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Drevno with him leaving being rumored for awhile. This just makes it official. With him no longer in the picture, it will be interesting to see what direction the offense goes in now.

Hamilton or McElwain could both be candidates to call plays. Warriner did the same for Ohio State, although that didn’t work out too well for them. Whatever the case is, there are still a lot of guys who I assume would like to have control of the offense (Harbaugh included). It could get a bit messy if roles aren’t defined or coaches are unhappy with their assignments, even with Drevno gone.

We’ll have to wait and see whether it is good or bad news for Notre Dame when the Wolverines visit in September. Maybe all of these offensive minds together will combine to run a revamped offense that can be as successful as Harbaugh’s final season at Stanford? That offense finished 3rd in the nation in S&P+.

Or maybe it’s a recipe for disaster with the amount of staff turnover they’ve had since Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor. The only offensive staff member that has made it to year four at Michigan with Harbaugh is his son, Jay.